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Reprinted  from 

The  Open  Court  Magazine,  Chicago, 
June,  1917 


Wtoiimn 


SYMPATHY  FOR  POLAND  IN  GERMAN  POETRY. 

BY  MAXIMILIAN  J.  RUDWIN. 

SUFFERING  Poland  has  never  failed  to  arouse  the  sympathy 
of  the  poets  of  Germany.  The  critical  events  in  the  history  of 
this  martyr  of  Europe  have  always  been  accompanied  by  expres¬ 
sions  of  deep  compassion  on  the  part  of  the  literary  men  in  Ger¬ 
many.1  The  first  partition  of  Poland  touched  the  heart-strings  of 
the  Swabian  bard  Christian  Daniel  Schubart  (1739-1791),  and  this 
unfortunate  poet,  who  afterward  became  the  innocent  victim  of  the 
tyrannical  duke  of  Wiirttemberg,1  has  the  credit  of  having  written 
the  first  German  poem  which  gives  expression  to  the  grief  of  Poland.2 

1  On  the  life  and  imprisonment  of  Schubart  see  the  article  in  the  London 
journal  Leisure  Hour ,  1854,  III,  667f,  and  685f. 

2  Vide  Robert  Franz  Arnold,  Geschichte  dcr  deutschen  Polenliteratur , 
Vol.  I:  Von  den  Anfdngen  bis  1800.  Halle,  1900.  The  appearance  of  the 
second  volume,  which  is  to  bring  the  subject  down  to  date,  has  been  unduly 
delayed.  Professor  Arnold  has  shown  in  the  first  voulme  such  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  subject  that  the  continuation  of  his  scholarly  work  is 
being  eagerly  expected  even  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 


SYMPATHY  FOR  POLAND  IN  GERMAN  POETRY. 


343 


The  following-  rhymeless  verses  of  Schubart,  which  were  published 
in  his  journal  Deutsche  Chronik  for  1774,  are  filled  with  that  mighty 
passion  which  lends  such  beauty  to  his  lyrical  rhapsody  “The 
Wandering  Jew.” 


“Da  irrt  Polonia 
Mit  fliegendem  Haare, 

Mit  jammerbleichem  Gesichte, 

Ringt  iiber  dem  Haupte 
Die  Hande.  Grosse  Tropfen 
Hangen  am  Auge,  das  bricht 
Und  langsam  starrt — und  stirbt, 

Doch  sie  stirbt  nicht ! 

Versagt  ist  ihr  des  Todes  Trost. 

Sie  fahrt  auf,  schwankt  und  sinkt 
Nieder  an  der  Felsenwand 
Und  schreit :  ach,  meine  Kinder, 

Wo  seid  ihr?  Ausgesat 
In  fremdes  Volk  und  hulflos. 

O  Sobieski,  grosser  Sohn, 

Wo  bist  du?  schau  herab ! 

Horst  du  nicht  am  Arme 
Deines  tapfern  Volks  die  Fessel  ras- 
seln? 

Siehst  du  nicht  den  Rauber 

Aus  Waldern  sturzen 

Und  dein  Land  verwiisten? — 

Ach,  der  Greis  versammelt  seine  Kin¬ 
der, 

Seine  Enkel  um  sich  her 
Und  ziickt  das  Schwert  und  wiirgt  sie 
nieder. 

Sterbt!  so  spricht  er  wutend, 

Was  ist  ein  Leben  ohne  Freiheit? 
Ha,  er  rollt  die  offnen  Augen, 
Durchstosst  die  Brust  und  sinkt 
Auf  seiner  Kinder  Leichen  nieder. — 
So  klagt  Polonia.” 


“Behold  Polonia, 

With  flowing  hair, 

And  mournful  brow, 

Wringing  her  hands  above  her  head. 
Her  eye  full  of  big  tears 
Grows  dim 

In  staring  vacancy — and  dies. 

Yet  she  dies  not! 

Denied  to  her  is  death’s  comfort. 

She  starts  and  sways,  she  sinks 
Down  at  the  foot  of  the  rock 
Crying,  O  my  children 
Where  are  ye?  Scattered 
Over  foreign  lands  and  helpless. 

O  Sobieski,  great  son  of  mine, 

Where  art  thou?  Look  down! 
Hearest  thou  not  fetters  clanking 
On  thy  brave  peoples’  arms? 

Seest  thou  not  the  robber 
Rush  from  the  woods 
And  devastate  thy  fields? 

Alas !  the  grandsire  gathers  around 
him 

Children  and  grand-children, 

And  draws  his  sword  to  slay  them. 
‘Die,’  he  says  in  rage, 

‘What  without  liberty  is  life?’ 

Rolling  his  eyes 

He  pierces  his  breast  and  sinks  down 
Upon  the  dead  bodies  of  his  children. — 
This  is  Polonia’s  plaint.” 


The  Polish  insurrection  of  1794  under  the  leadership  of  Ta- 
deusz  Kosciusko  found  an  inspired  singer  in  the  Konigsberg  poet 
Zacharias  Werner  (1768-1823),  who  was  living  at  that  time  as 
a  Prussian  official  in  Poland.  In  the  three  poems  which  he  devoted 
to  the  Polish  nation  (“Battle  Song  of  the  Poles  under  Kosciusko,” 
“Fragment,”  and  “To  a  people”)  he  gives  poetical  expression  to 
his  deep  sympathy  with  Poland  in  her  death-struggle  with  her 
mightier  neighbors  and  hails  the  legions  who  were  fighting  under 
Kosciusko  as  the  champions  of  liberty  for  all  Europe.  In  the  last 
strophe  of  his  poem  “To  a  People,”  which  was  written  before  the 


344 


THE  OPEN  COURT. 


fall  of  Warsaw,  this  sanguine  poet  gives  voice  to  his  hope  for  the 
speedy  restoration  of  Poland: 

“Dir — zwar  im  Meer  ein  Tropfen  nur— 

O  Volk !  wird  auch  die  Stunde  schallen, 

Und — sollt’st  du  auch  noch  einmal  fallen, 

Verloschen  deines  Namens  Spur — 

Der  Aufwecker  lebt  und  wacht, 

Und  eh’  im  grossen  Strom  der  Zeiten 
Ein  Lustrum  wird  voriiber  gleiten, 

1st  alles  gleich  gemacht !” 

German  sympathy  for  Poland  reached  its  zenith,  however,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  Warsaw  revolt  of  1830.  The  first  attempt 
of  the  Polish  nation  to  throw  off  the  foreign  yoke  awakened  great 
enthusiasm  in  all  German  states.  The  German  people  had  a  few 
years  before  responded  generously  to  the  struggle  of  the  Greeks  for 
independence.  But  their  response  to  the  struggle  of  the  Poles  for 
freedom  was  more  spontaneous  and  general.  “The  Germans,”  says 
Brandes,3  “then  possessed  the  quality,  which  Bismarck  afterward 
laid  to  their  charge  as  a  fault — a  fault  of  which  he  has  cured  them 
— of  being  almost  more  interested  in  the  welfare  of  other  nations 
than  in  their  own,  to  the  extent  even  of  desiring  that  welfare  when 
it  could  only  be  purchased  by  some  surrender  of  power  on  the  part 
of  Germany.” 

But  the  emotionally  sympathetic  attitude  of  the  Germans  toward 
the  struggle  of  the  Poles  for  national  independence  was  not,  as 
Brandes  would  have  us  believe,  altogether  due  to  altruistic  motives. 
The  Germans  sympathized  so  strongly  with  the  Poles  in  their  fight 
against  Russian  despotism  because  they  realized  that  the  Poles  were 
fighting  not  only  for  themselves,  but  foT  the  whole  of  Europe.  The 
Polish  rebellion  of  1830  was  to  decide  whether  absolutism  as  dic¬ 
tated  by  Nicholas  I  in  St.  Petersburg  and  by  Metternich  in  Vienna 
or  national  and  constitutional  liberty  were  to  prevail  in  all  the  coun¬ 
tries  of  Europe.  The  young  men  in  Germany,  who  were  chafing 
under  the  heavy  weight  of  spiritual  and  political  reaction,  which 
had  its  center  in  Austria  and  was  spreading  over  all  the  German 
countries,4  saw  in  the  fight  of  the  Poles  for  liberty  their  own  fight. 
What  wonder  if  they  responded  to  every  heart-throb  of  the  cham¬ 
pions  of  liberty  across  the  Vistula. 

3  Georg  Brandes,  Main  Currents  in  Nineteenth  Century  Literature ,  Vol. 
VI,  p.  84.  6  vols.,  London,  1901-5. 

4  For  a  vivid  picture  of  the  vicious  system  which  dated  from  the  congress 
of  Vienna  and  succeeded  in  ruling  Europe  for  more  than  thirty  years  see 
Karl  Biedermann,  Fiinfundzwansig  Jahre  deutscher  Geschichte,  etc.,  (1815- 
1840),  2  vols.,  Breslau,  1889. 


SYMPATHY  TOR  POLAND  IN  GERMAN  POETRY. 


345 


Naturally  enough  those  men  who  suffered  most  from  the  tyr¬ 
anny  of  the  literary  police,  from  the  caprice  of  an  ignorant  censor, 
those  men  who  were  the  greatest  victims  of  the  bloodhounds  of  a 
reactionary  morality,  had  the  most  passionate  enthusiasm  for  the 
Polish  cause  and  showed  the  most  intense  sympathy  with  the  Polish 
rebels.  Platen  and  Lenau,  Borne  and  Heine  were  for  this  reason 
the  strongest  advocates  in  Germany  of  Poland’s  case  for  indepen¬ 
dence.  After  the  failure  of. the  Polish  revolution  Platen  and  Lenau 
turned  their  backs  upon  their  country,  which  now  seemed  to  be 
drifting  more  and  more  toward  Russian  despotism.  Platen  died  a 
few  years  later  in  voluntary  exile  in  Sicily,  and  Lenau,  who  had 
hoped  to  find  in  the  free  republic  across  the  Atlantic  the  freedom 
which  through  the  suppression  of  the  Polish  revolution  had  been 
dealt  such  a  deadly  blow  in  Europe,  ended  upon  his  return  to  Ger¬ 
many  in  an  insane  asylum.  Borne  and  Heine  did  not  even  wait  to 
see  the  effect  of  the  Polish  revolution  on  Germany.  They  hurried 
soon  after  the  Paris  revolution  to  France  “in  order,”  as  Heine  ex¬ 
pressed  himself,  “to  breathe  fresh  air.”  But  they  took  their  sym¬ 
pathy  for  Poland  with  them.  Even  in  Paris  they  feverishly  fol¬ 
lowed  every  movement  of  the  combatants  in  Warsaw.  In  his  in¬ 
troduction  to  Kahldorf’s  book  on  the  aristocracy5  Heinrich  Heine 
writes  in  1831  as  follows:  “I  feel  while  I  am  writing  as  if  the  blood 
shed  at  Warsaw  were  gushing  upon  my  paper,  and  as  if  the  shouts 
of  joy  of  the  Berlin  officers  and  diplomatists  were  ringing  in  my 
ears.” 

Neither  did  Ludwig  Borne  leave  his  interest  in  the  Polish  up¬ 
rising  in  the  Judengasse  of  Frankfort.  He  trembled  in  Paris  for 
the  fate  of  the  Polish  rebels  in  Warsaw.  Although  at  first  very 
optimistic  in  regard  to  the  outcome  of  the  Polish  revolution,  he 
finally  came  in  his  “Letters  from  Paris”  to  the  conclusion  that  “not 
even  the  wisdom  of  God,  nothing  but  the  stupidity  of  the  devil  can 
save  Poland  now”  (March  5,  1831).  Sympathy  with  Poland,  in¬ 
deed,  had  a  most  far-reaching  effect  upon  Borne.6  It  determined 

5  Kahldorf  uber  den  Adel ,  in  Brief en  an  den  Grafen  M.  von  Moltke. 
Edited  by  Heinrich  Heine.  Nuremberg,  1831.  Heine’s  introduction  to  this 
book  is  also  to  be  found  in  any  complete  edition  of  the  poet’s  works.  Kahldorf 
is  a  pseudonym  for  R.  Wesselhoeft. 

6  How  the  Polish  rebellion  absorbed  the  attention  of  the  liberal  element 
in  Germany  can  also  be  seen  from  the  words  of  Frau  Jeanette  Wohl:  “The 
Polish  Scythemen,  the  liberty  of  Poland — nothing  else  is  worthy  to  be  men¬ 
tioned  with  this.”  ( Brief e  der  Frau  Jeanette  Strauss-Wohl  an  Borne,  edited 
by  E.  Mentzel,  Berlin,  1907.)  These  words  were  directed  at  her  august  cor¬ 
respondent  as  a  reproach  for  being  able  to  write  of  the  Italian  opera  in  Paris 
at  a  time  when  the  life  of  the  Polish  nation  was  hanging  in  the  balance. 


346 


THE  OPEN  COURT. 


not  only  his  political  but  also  his  religious  views.  Though  a  con¬ 
vert  to  Lutheran  Protestantism  in  1818,  Borne  began  after  the 
Polish  rebellion,  especially  when  he  came  under  the  influence  of 
Lamennais,  to  incline  more  and  more  toward  Catholicism.  To 
Borne,  who  thus  came  from  Judaism  by  way  of  Protestantism  to 
Catholicism,  Christianity,  especially  in  its  Catholic  form,  was  the 
religion  of  humanity,  of  liberty,  and  in  the  ardent  love  of  the  Poles 
for  liberty  he  saw  a  proof  of  the  liberalizing  power  of  Catholicism. 
“The  only  nation  of  the  North,”  Borne  writes,7  “that  for  three 
hundred  years  has  not  ceased  to  make  a  stand  for  liberty  is  Poland ; 
and  Poland  remained  Catholic.”  It  was  his  bond  of  union  with  the 
Poles,  the  love  of  liberty  which  he  had  in  common  with  them,  that 
won  Borne  over  finally  to  Catholicism. 

National  sympathy  for  Poland  during  the  revolt  of  1830  found 
its  most  beautiful  expression,  however,  in  the  German  poetry  of 
that  time.  Almost  all  the  contemporary  German  poets  struck  a 
note  of  sympathy  for  the  Poles.  The  Polenlieder  (Songs  of  Poland) 
form  a  not  inconsiderable  part  of  the  poetry  of  Germany  for  about 
a  quarter  of  a  century  following  the  Polish  uprising.  August  Count 
von  Platen  (1796-1835)  and  Karl  von  Holtei  (1797-1880),  Heinrich 
Heine  (1797-1856)  and  Karl  Immermann  (1796-1840),  Nikolaus 
Lenau  (Franz  Nicolaus  Niembsch  Edler  von  Strehlenau,  1802- 
1850)  and  Anastasius  Griin  (Anton  Alexander  Count  von  Auers- 
perg,  1806-1876),  Julius  Mosen  (1803-1867)  and  Friedrich  Hebbel 
(1813-1863),  Moritz  Hartmann  (1821-1879)  and  Ferdinand  Gre- 
gorovius  (1821-1891),  Ferdinand  Freiligrath  (1810-1876)  and  Gus¬ 
tav  Pfizer  (1807-1890),  J.  Chr.  Biernatzki  (1795-1840)  and  Wil¬ 
helm  Zimmermann  (1807-1878),  Ernst  O.  Ortlepp  (1800-1864) 
and  K.  Herloszsohn  (1804-1849),  Otto  von  Wenckstern  (1819- 
1869)  and  Friedrich  Ruperti  (1805-1867),  these  and  many  others 
pressed  their  muse  into  the  service  of  the  Polish  rebellion.8  They 
wrote  poems  on  the  Poles,  sang  of  their  successes  and  failures,  vic¬ 
tories  and  defeats,  and  when  all  was  over  aroused  the  sympathy 
of  the  German  people  for  the  plight  of  the  unfortunate  refugees. 

It  seems  strange  at  first  that  the  name  of' the  greatest  poetical 

7  Quoted  in  Brandes,  Main  Currents  in  Nineteenth  Century  Literature, 

VI,  97. 

8  A  collection  of  poems  on  Poland  in  the  German  language  ( Polenlieder 
deutscher  Dichter )  is  being  prepared  by  S.  Leonhard.  The  first  volume,  the 
only  one  so  far  in  print,  which  has  the  subtitle  Der  N ovemberauf stand  in  den 
Polcnliedern  deutscher  Dichter  (Cracow,  1911)  does  not  contain  all  poems 
written  by  German  poets  on  the  occasion  of  the  Warsaw  revolt  of  November, 
1830.  No  mention  is  made  in  this  volume,  for  instance,  of  the  Polen-  und 
Magyarenlieder  of  Ferdinand  Gregorovius  (Konigsberg,  1849). 


SYMPATHY  FOR  POLAND  IN  GERMAN  POETRY. 


347 


genius  of  Germany  is  not  found  among  those  who  gave  voice  to  the 
national  German  feeling  of  love  and  sympathy  for  the  Polish  nation. 
But  one  must  not  judge  from  Goethe’s  silence  that  his  heart-strings 
were  not  touched  at  all  with  admiration  for  the  heroic  struggle  of 
the  Polish  people  for  independence.9  It  was  the  futility  of  this 
attempt,  which  the  Olympian  foresaw,  that  prevented  him  from 
giving  expression  to  his  feeling  of  sympathy.  Goethe  believed  that 
the  Poles  were  incapable  of  self-government  because  of  certain 
national  characteristics,  and  only  on  this  ground  did  he  defend 
Prussia’s  participation  in  the  dismemberment  of  Poland.10  Goethe 
was,  however,  deeply  interested  in  Polish  history  and  literature.11 
He  himself  had  known  many  prominent  Poles,  among  them  Prince 
Radziwill,  who  composed  the  music  for  his  “Faust,”  and  the 
Polish  poet  Miqkiewicz,  and  only  four  months  before  his  death 
Goethe  received  in  audience  the  poet  Wincenty  Pol,  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  Polish  revolt.  Goethe  even  had  the  opportunity  of 
knowing  a  part  of  Poland  from  personal  experience.  In  the  year 
1790  in  the  company  of  the  Prince  of  Weimar  he  went  by  way  of 
Breslau  and  Cracow  to  the  salt-pits  of  Wieliczka.  Immediately 
before  his  arrival  in  the  Jagiellonian  city  Goethe  wrote  the  follow¬ 
ing  poem,  which,  to  judge  from  its  tone  of  deep  sorrow,  would 
almost  seem  to  express  the  grief  of  the  Polish  patriots: 

“Ach,  wir  sind  zur  Qual  geboren, 

Sag!  ihr  unter  Tranen  wert, 

Erst  in  dem  was  wir  verloren, 

Dann  in  dem  was  wir  begehrt 

Germany’s  songs  of  Poland  ( Polenlieder )  are  on  the  whole 
elegiac  in  tone.  A  jubilant  note  is  struck,  however,  in  those  poems 
written  in  the  early  phase  of  the  rebellion  under  the  influence  of 
the  glad  tidings  of  the  victory  of  the  Polish  white  eagle.  Pfizer's 
Siegesgruss  was  written  in  the  first  flush  of  jubilant  joy  over  the 
capture  of  Warsaw  by  the  rebels.  The  first  and  last  stanzas  of 
this  song  of  victory  run  as  follows : 

“Frohlockt,  ihr  Berge!  jauchzt,  ihr  Hugel ! 

Der  weisse  Adler  spannt  die  Fliigel 
Aus  uber  ein  eriostes  Land; 

9  For  Goethe’s  attitude  to  the  Polish  question  the  reader  is  referred  to 
the  following  two  articles :  “Goethe  und  die  Polenfrage”  in  Deutsche  Erde, 
1908,  VI,  No.  5,  and  B.  Merwin,  “Goethes  und  Hebbels  Beziehungen  zu  Polen’ 
in  Oesterreichxsche  Rundschau,  1913,  XXXV,  pp.  154-158. 

10  Cf.  Goethes  Gespr'ache,  edited  by  Biedermann,  IV,  425  (Jan.  1,  1832), 
5  vols.  Leipsic,  1909-1911. 

i 'Ibid.,  IV,  145,  267-268.- 


348 


THE  OPEN  COURT. 


Dass  er  von  Staub  und  Blut  und  Asche 
Den  Glanz  der  Fliigel  rein  sich  wasche, 
Enteilt  er  zum  Meeresstrand. 


“Und  durch  Europa  hallt  es  wieder, 

Und  tausend  sinken  betend  nieder, 

Und  dankend  faltet  sich  die  Hand. — 

Frohlockt,  ihr  Berge!  jauchzt,  ihr  Hiigel! 

Der  weisse  Adler  spannt  die  Fliigel 
Aus  iiber  ein  erlostes  Land.” 

When  all  hope  for  Poland’s  victory  was  lost,  the  Polenlieder 
also  took  on  a  tone  of  deep  wrath  and  indignation  against  a  world 
which  allowed  such  crimes  against  humanity.  But  the  most  pathetic 
and  the  most  beautiful  of  the  songs  of  Poland  are  those  inspired 
by  sympathy  with  the  Polish  fugitives,  who,  after  the  crushing 
defeat  of  the  Polish  army,  fled  in  great  numbers  across  the  border. 
One  recalls  Lenau’s  “Polish  Fugitive,”  and  who  does  not  know 
Julius  Mosen’s  ballad  “The  Ten  Last  Men  of  the  Fourth  Regi¬ 
ment,”  which  is  still  so  often  on  the  lips  of  the  youth  in  Germany : 

“In  Warschau  schwuren  Tausend  auf  den  Knien : 

Kein  Schuss  im  heil’gen  Kampfe  sei  getan ! 

Tambour,  schlag  an!  Zum  Blachfeld  lass  uns  ziehen! 

Wir  greifen  nur  mit  Bajonetten  an! 

Und  ewig  kennt  das  Vaterland  und  nennt 

Mit  stillem  Schmerz  sein  viertes  Regiment ! 


“Und  ob  viel  wackre  Mannerherzen  brachen, 
Doch  griffen  wir  mit  Bajonetten  an, 

Und  ob  wir  auch  dem  Schicksal  unterlagen, 
Doch  keiner  hatte  einen  Schuss  getan ! 

Wo  blutigrot  zum  Meer  die  Weichsel  rennt, 
Dort  blutete  das  vierte  Regiment ! 


“Von  Polen  her  im  Nebelgrauen  riicken 
Zehn  Grenadiere  in  das  Preussenland 
Mit  diisterm  Schweigen,  gramumwolkten  Blicken ; 

Ein  ‘Wer  da?’  schallt;  sie  stehen  festgebannt, 

Und  einer  spricht:  ‘Vom  Vaterland  getrennt, 

Die  letzten  zehn  vom  vierten  Regiment !’  ” 

The  laurel  for  the  best  Polenlieder  is  due,  however,  to  August 
Count  von  Platen.  Platen  was  the  first  German  poet  who  responded 
to  Poland’s  call  in  her  hour  of  greatest  need.  The  revolt  of  War¬ 
saw  of  November  29,  1830,  was  followed  on  December  11  by  his 


SYMPATHY  FOR  POLAND  IN  GERMAN  POETRY. 


349 


Russophobian  poem  ‘‘The  Realm  of  Spirits”  with  its  Dantesque 
terza-rima,  in  which  he  pours  out  his  ire  on  the  autocrat  of  Russia. 
The  first  of  his  Polenlieder  proper  was  written  on  February  3,  1831, 
and  the  last,  his  “Epilog,”  in  1833  when  in  deep  wrath  he  turned 
his  back  upon  his  fatherland.  It  ends  in  the  bitter  words : 

“Du  weisst  es  langst,  man  kann  hienieden 
Nichts  Schlecht’res  als  ein  Deutscher  sein.” 


These  poems  of  his,  however,  were  not  published  until  four 
years  after  his  death,  and  because  of  the  rigorous  censorship  in 
Germany  they  appeared  in  Strassburg,  which  at  that  time  belonged 
to  France.  His  sympathy  and  love  for  the  Polish  people  in  its 
heroic  fight  for  independence  is  also  attested  by  a  number  of  other 
writings  in  prose  and  verse  which  appeared  during  his  life.  He 
also  championed  the  Polish  cause  in  a  number  of  odes  and  other 
poems  of  a  general  political  character,  several  epigrams  and  satir¬ 
ical  verses,  and,  in  prose,  in  his  “Correspondence  between  a  Berliner 
and  a  German,”  in  his  essay  “Legitimacy”  (written  in  the  form  of 
a  letter  to  the  Czar)  and  finally  in  his  satirical  “Catalog  of  1833” 
(Messkatalog) . 

Platen’s  Polenlieder  are  proud  songs  of  liberty,  filled  with  a 
passionate  hatred  of  despotism,  and  this  fire  of  his  wrath  against 
oppression  of  any  sort,  far  from  being  quenched  by  the  crushing 
defeat  of  the  Poles,  burst  out  into  greater  flame  against  an  age 
which  did  not  respond  to  the  appeal  of  the  Polish  nation  for  pro¬ 
tection  against  its  murderers.  In  his  wild  excitement  over  the  fate 
of  the  Poles  Platen  had  in  vain  addressed  a  poem  to  the  crown 
prince  of  Prussia,  imploring  him  to  come  to  the  aid  of  languishing 
Poland,  which  was  stretching  out  her  hand  to  Europe  praying  for 
help.  (See  his  poem  “To  a  German  Prince.”) 

It  does  not  detract  from  the  value  of  Platen’s  poems  that  they 
were  inspired  more  by  love  of  humanity  than  by  any  understanding 
of  political  matters.  Platen  was  more  of  an  enthusiast  than  a 
thinker,  more  of  a  visionary  than  a  statesman. 

His  most  powerful  Polenlied  is  perhaps  the  one  which  bears 
as  title  the  quotation  from  Horace,  Eamns  Omnis  Execrata  Civitas; 
it  begins  with  these  stanzas : 


“O  kommt  im  Verein, 

Ihr  Manner,  o  kommt ! 
Vernehmt,  was  allein 
Den  Geachteten  frommt ! 


“Zieht  aus  von  dem  Land 
Der  Geburt,  zieht  aus 
Und  schleudert  den  Brand 
In  das  eigerie  Haus !” 


Platen’s  mantle  fell  on  the  shoulders  of  Moritz*  Hartmann,  a 


350 


THE  OPEN  COURT. 


man  worthy  indeed  to  be  ranked  among  the  greatest  champions  of 
liberty  in  Europe.  His  sympathy  with  the  Slavs  under  Austrian 
rule,  his  championship  of  their  rights,  finally  brought  him  banish¬ 
ment  at  the  hands  of  Metternich’s  henchmen.  Though  born  in 
Bohemia  of  German- Jewish  parents,  he  felt  for  the  Poles  as  if  he 
were  a  Pole  himself.  Through  his  love  for  a  Polish  woman  he 
became  in  his  heart  her  countryman.  His  farewell  poem  to  her, 

“To  C . a,”  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  poems  that  sympathy 

with  Poland  has  produced  in  German  literature.  The  first  and  last 
verses  read  as  follows : 

“Und  kann  bei  uns  dich  nichts  mehr  halten, 

Und  zieht’s  dich  fort  ins  Vaterland, 

So  lebe  wohl,  und  moge  walten 
Ob  deinem  Haupte  Gottes  Hand ; 

Gott  schiitze  dich 
In  Polen,  dem  trau rigen  Lande ! 


“Stieg’  auf  der  Brand  des  heil’gen  Krieges, 

Dir  folgt’  ich  nach,  mein  teurer  Stern ! 

Von  dir  geweiht  zur  Kraft  des  Sieges, 

O,  wie  verblutet’  ich  mich  gern 
In  deinem  Schoss, 

In  Polen,  dem  traurigen  Lande !” 

Following  the  example  of  Platen,  Hartmann  too  addresses  a 
poem  “To  the  King”  (Frederick  William  IV,  who  had  in  the  mean¬ 
time  become  king  of  Prussia),  in  which  he  cries  shame  upon,  him 
for  not  only  having  refused  to  come  to  the  aid  of  bleeding  Poland 
in  1831  when  Platen  pleaded  with  him  on  her  behalf,  but  for  having 
delivered  her  sons  who  had  fled  to  his  country  to  the  knout  of  the 
Muscovites : 


“Wir  schleudern  dir  die  ganze  Schande 
Zu  Fiissen  schamentbrannt, 

Dass  du  aus  unserm  deutschen  Lande 
Gemacht  ein  Schergenland ; 

“Dass  du  die  Schar,  bedeckt  vom  Blute, 

Das  sie  zu  Heil’gen  tauft, 

Gemeiner  Moskowiterknute 
Verraterisch  verkauft.” 

Gregorovius  too  in  the  first  of  his  Polenlieder  describes  the 
impression  which  the  delivery  by  the  Prussian  soldiers  of  the  last 


SYMPATHY  FOR  POLAND  IN  GERMAN  POETRY. 


351 


Polish  refugees  into  the  hands  of  the  Russian  Cossacks  in  1832 
made  upon  the  eleven-year-old  boy : 

“Seit  jenem  Tag,  seit  jener  schweren  Stunde, 

Hat  sich  versenket  in  des  Knaben  Herz 
Der  Wehgesang  von  der  Verlornen  Munde, 

Der  Polensohne  diistrer  Seelenschmerz.” 

A  poem  of  unique  character  was  written  by  C.  A.  Albertus 
in  the  diary  of  his  brother-in-arms  Seydel  on  November  2,  1831, 
in  Warsaw.  Together  with  a  few  friends  these  two  medical  stu¬ 
dents  of  the  University  of  Leipsic  had  been  threatened  with  im¬ 
prisonment  for  belonging  to  a  Burschenschaft,  a  nationalist  students’ 
organization  which  because  of  its  liberal  views  was  obnoxious  to 
a  government  following  Metternichian  principles.  They  went  to 
Warsaw  to  serve  in  the  ambulance  corps  of  the  Polish  army,12  and 
anticipating  the  wretched  state  in  which  they  were  soon  to  return 
home  Albertus  composed  the  following  humorous  lines: 

“Wir  gingen  einst  nach  Polen, 

Um  Lause  uns  zu  holen, 

Und  kamen  abgewargelt, 

Be -  und  beschmargelt, 

In  Deutschland  wieder  an. 

Der  Vater  und  die  Mutter 
Zerschmolzen  fast  zu  Butter, 

Als  sie  dies  Elend  sah’n.” 

Heine’s  poem  “Two  Knights,”  which  satirizes  the  life  of 
two  Polish  refugees  in  Paris  bearing  the  significant  names  of 
Crapulinski  and  Waschlapski,  is  by  no  means  flattering  to  the  Poles, 
and  this  may  partly  account  for  the  antipathy  against  Heine  even 
in  the  intellectual  circles  of  Poland.13  But  nothing  was  farther 
from  Heine  than  hatred  and  contempt  for  the  Polish  people.  It  is 
their  supersensitiveness  which  prevents  the  Poles  from  regarding 
this  poem  as  the  product  of  Heine’s  peculiar  wit,  from  which  no 
one,  not  even  God  in  his  holy  temple,  was  safe.  Heine’s  life-long 
friendship  with  the  Polish  nobleman  Eugen  von  Breza  is  well  known, 

12  An  interesting  account  of  these  German  ambulance  workers  in  the 
Polish  army  ( Freiheitskdmpfer ,  as  they  styled  themselves)  was  given  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Polish  uprising  of  1905  by  G.  A.  Fritze,  a  girandson  of  Seydel, 
in  his  article  “Deutsche  Studenten  als  Kampfer  fur  Polens  Freiheit”  in  the 
Berlin  weekly  Die  Nation  of  August  25,  1906  (Vol.  XXIII,  No.  47). 

13  Gustav  Karpeles  in  his  article  “Heine  und  die  Polen”  in  the  Pester 
Lloyd  for  1907,  (quoted  also  in  Das  literarische  Echo,  IX,  No.  21,  col.  1599, 
Aug.  1,  1907),  traces  the  antipathy  of  the  Poles  to  Heine  largely  to  a  myth, 
which  is  widely  spread  in  the  Slavic  world,  to  the  effect  that  Heine  was  paid 
by  the  French  government  to  vilify  the  Polish  name. 


352 


THE  OPEN  COURT. 


and  the  poet’s  visit  to  his  friend’s  home  in  Poland  resulted  in  his 
memoir  on  Poland  which  shows  his  deep  interest  in  the  Polish  land 
and  people.  His  beautiful  little  poem  beginning  Du  hist  wie  eine 
Blume  is  also  said  to  have  originated  on  the  occasion  of  this  visit 
to  Poland.  Heine  is  supposed  to  have  addressed  these  lines  to  a 
little  Polish  girl  in  Gnesen  whose  beauty  had  captivated  him. 

One  of  the  German  poets,  who  as  a  young  man  gave  expression 
to  the  national  feeling  of  sympathy  with  downtrodden  Poland,  seems 
to  have  recanted  later  in  life.  What  a  contrast  between  two  poems 
of  Hebbel,  written  thirty  years  apart!  On  New  Year’s  night  of 
1835  the  twenty-two-year-old  poet  toasts  the  Poles  with  his  poem 
Die  Polen  sollen  leben  (“Long  Live  the  Poles”).  Sympathy  with  the 
Polish  refugees,  who  after  the  pitiful  defeat  of  the  uprising  had 
been  scattered  all  over  Europe,  also  sank  into  the  heart  of  this 
youthful  poet  and  inspired  his  poem.  But  in  1861  on  the  occasion 
of  the  attempt  on  the  life  of  King  William  of  Prussia  by  Oskar 
Becker,  Hebbel  addresses  a  congratulatory  poem  to  the  monarch, 
in  which  without  any  provocation  on  the  part  of  the  Poles  he  gives 
vent  to  the  deepest  contempt  for  them.  The  following  lines  in  this 
poem  caused  a  storm  of  indignation  in  the  whole  Slavic  world: 

“Audi  die  Bedientenvolker  riitteln. 

Am  Bau,  den  Jeder  todt  geglaubt, 

Die  Czechen  und  Polacken  schiitteln 
Ihr  strnpp’ges  Karyatidenhaupt.” 

Hebbel  defended  himself  as  well  as  he  could  against  the  attacks 
which  he  had  thus  unnecessarily  brought  upon  himself. 

However,  it  would  be  unjust  to  impute  Slavophobia  to  Hebbel. 
From  his  diary  written  during  the  second  attempt  of  the  Poles  to 
throw  off  the  foreign  yoke  we  see  that  he  still  sympathized  with 
them  in  their  desire  for  national  independence,  but  like  so  many 
other  Germans  of  1863  he  saw  that  the  uprising  was  doomed  to  a 
pitiful  failure,  and  he  called  the  attempt  unverantwortlichen  Leicht- 
sinn  (inexcusable  levity).14  Ten  years  before  this  in  his  somewhat 
humorous  poem  Polen  ist  noch  nicht  verloren  he  held  up  to  ridi¬ 
cule  the  class-antagonism  in  Poland  which  persisted  even  in  the 
face  of  common  danger.  But  this  conviction  of  the  inability  of 
the  Poles  to  regain  their  national  independence  did  not  prevent 
Hebbel  from  flaying  Prussia  for  its  contemptible  role  as  Russia’s 
henchman.15 

14  Friedrich  Hebbel,  Sdmtliche  IVerke.  Edited  by  Richard  Maria  Werner, 
24  vdls.  Berlin,  1901-1907.  Tagebiicher,  IV,  285  (March  27,  1863). 

15  Ibid.,  IV,  270  (February,  1863).  For  Hebbel’s  attitude  to  the  Poles  see 
Merwin’s  article  referred  to  in  note  9. 


SYMPATHY  FOR  POLAND  IN  GERMAN  POETRY. 


353 


Hebbel  was  as  poor  a  statesman  as  Platen,  Hartmann  and  all 
other  pro-Polish  enthusiasts  of  the  thirties  and  forties.  He  lacked 
an  understanding  of  the  facts  underlying  the  actions  of  Prussia. 
Prussia  in  the  nineteenth  century  was  little  more  than  a  vassal  of 
Russia.  She  did  the  bidding  of  the  Czar  for  fear  that  Poland’s 
fate  might  be  hers  also.  But  of  course  we  see  in  Prussia’s  vassalage 
to  Russia  the  Nemesis  of  history.  By  his  alliance  with  Czarina 
Catherine,  which  led  to  the  partition  of  Poland,  Frederick  II  of 
Prussia  supported  Russia  in  her  schemes  of  conquest  and  helped 
her  become  a  great  power,  a  power  which  has  since  then  been 
highly  dangerous  to  the  civilization  and  liberties  of  Europe.  Prus¬ 
sia’s  fate  was  that  of  the  fabled  magician’s  apprentice,  who  could 
conjure  up  spirits  but  could  not  banish  them.  On  no  country  in 
Europe  lay  the  arrogance  and  ruthless  domineering  of  the  Czar  of 
all  the  Russias  so  heavily  as  on  Prussia  and  all  other  German 
states.  In  no  country  of  Europe  was  the  fear  of  Russia  so  great 
as  in  Prussia  and  all  other  German  states.  Prussia  was  afraid  to 
throw  off  the  shackles  of  Czar  Alexander  also,  who,  we  must  admit, 
did  not  oppress  Europe  with  such  a  crippling  domination  as  did  his 
predecessor  Czar  Nicholas.  It  was  for  fear  of  Czardom  that  Fred¬ 
erick  William  IV,  who  was  really  kind  to  the  Poles,  humbled  him¬ 
self  as  did  his  father  before  him  to  such  an  extent  as  to  render 
Russia  “provost  service,”  as  Hebbel  says. 

The  Polish  revolutions  of  1863  and  1905  found  little  echo  in 
German  poetry.  There  were  few  expressions  of  sympathy  in  the 
German  literature  of  those  days  with  these  attempts  of  the  Polish 
nation  to  regain  independence.  The  horrors  connected  with  the 
quelling  of  the  Polish  uprisings  brought  forth  few  expressions  of 
sympathy  in  the  poetry  of  Germany.16  In  the  school  of  hard  facts 
the  Germans  have  ceased  to  believe  in  political  ethics.  The  poets 
of  Germany  no  less  than  her  statesmen  have  lost  their  naivete  in 
political  matters.  They  have  suddenly  awakened  to  the  bitter  reali¬ 
zation  that  among  nations  as  well  as  among  individuals  might  makes 
right.  The  restoration  of  Poland  was  now  considered  in  Germany 
as  a  fantastic  notion.  The  results  of  these  attempts  at  a  re-birth  of 
the  Polish  state  certainly  justified  the  Germans  in  calling  them  an 
incomprehensible  folly.  The  fallacy  of  the  familiar  saying  Polonia 
far  a  da  se  has  been  sufficiently  proved  by  history.  The  independence 
of  Poland,  which  was  reestablished  on  November  29,  1916,  is  not 

16  Poems  on  Poland  are  said  to  have  appeared  during  the  Palish  revolt  of 
1863  in  Adolf  Strodtmann’s  journal  Orion  for  that  year.  The  present  writer 
was  unable,  however,  to  verify  this  statement. 


354 


THE  OPEN  COUKT. 


due  to  its  own  efforts,  but  is  the  result  of  foreign  intervention. 
The  liberation  of  Congress  Poland  by  Germany  and  Austria-Hun¬ 
gary,  finally  brought  to  realization  the  dreams  of  their  poets  of  almost 
a  century  ago.  What  Prussia  could  not  and  would  not  do  in  1831, 
she  did  in  1916.  What  was  refused  to  the  subjects  of  a  dreaded 
ally,  was  granted  freely  to  the  subjects  of  a  defeated  enemy. 

The  following  prophetic  words  of  Platen  addressed  to  the 
patriots  of  Warsaw  may  serve  as  a  fitting  conclusion.  The  poem 
“The  End  of  Poland”  ( Finis  Poloniae),  from  which  these  lines  are 
taken,  was  written  on  March  20,  1831,  on  the  occasion  of  the  false 
report  that  Warsaw  had  been  taken  on  the  28th  of  the  preceding 
month  and  Poland  made  a  Russian  province.  It  was  first  published 
in  1868  in  the  German  periodical  Grenzboten.  After  Warsaw  had 
finally  been  taken  by  the  Russians  on  September  8,  1831,  Platen 
worked  the  poem  over  and  renamed  it  “The  Fall  of  Warsaw.”  Mr. 
Edmund  W.  Head,  who  rendered  these  verses  into  English  for 
Fraser  s  Magazine  on  the  occasion  of  the  second  Polish  rebellion, 
calls  attention  in  a  prefatory  note  to  the  fact  that  the  words  Finis 
Poloniae  were  said  to  be  those  uttered  by  Kosciusko  when  he  fell 
wounded  in  the  battle  of  Malikowice  in  1794,  but  were  disclaimed 
by  him  in  a  letter  to  the  Comte  de  Segur  :17 

i. 

“Ye  noble  hearts  beneath  the  sod!  grudge  not  the  blood  you’ve  shed, 

The  time  will  come  when  pilgrim  hands  shall  deck  with  flowers  your  bed : 
The  poet  too  will  hither  haste,  and  sing  in  fearless  strain 
This  hecatomb  to  Liberty,  round  Warsaw’s  ramparts  slain; 

Nor  shall  your  grave  be  hard  to  find  by  those  who  tread  this  ground, 

A  quaint  form — great  Nemesis — sits  watching  on  its  mound. 


n. 

“What  boots  it  that  a  thousand  foes  have  fall’n  beneath  your  sword? 

The  life-blood  of  a  single  Pole  is  worth  a  Cossack  horde: 

And  though  the  tyrant’s  slaves  may  lie  here,  mingled  in  one  grave 
With  those  who  lavished  all,  and  then  life  for  their  country  gave ; 

Fair  Freedom’s  trophy  on  this  spot  your  country  yet  shall  see, 

And  your  Simonides  shall  sing  this  new  Thermopylae.” 

17 Frazer’s  Magazine  for  May,  1863  (Vol.  LXVII,  p.  612).  This  poem  of 
Platen  is  the  only  Polenlied  which  has  up  to  the  present  day  been  accessible 
to  English  readers.  Of  all  the  German  poets  who  wrote  Polenlieder  Heinrich 
Heine  is  best  known  among  the  English-speaking  peoples,  and  yet  not  one 
of  his  numerous  translators  has  rendered  his  poem  “Two  Knights”  into  Eng¬ 
lish.  Not  even  Mr.  Louis  Untermeyer  has  included  this  lampoon  among  those 
poems  of  Heine  which  he  has  just  done  so  well  into  English. 


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